Modder Recreates The Half-Life Remake Black Mesa In VR

Black Mes fans can play the game in VR using a mod dubbed Black Mesa Source VR, which is in active development. It is an unofficial port created by VR modder Ashok that images the alluring first-person shooter through the lens of Virtual Reality. A new Youtube trailer for the public beta has been released, unveiling new gameplay showing the ambitious mod. It has stirred a ton of anticipation in the Half-Life community.

The trailer shows the action-packed moments from Black Mesa in VR, revealing the scope of the project. The fans have absolutely loved the new trailer for the VR mod, which looks quite polished for an unofficial mod; it reimagines almost most of the Half-Life remake in all its glory. The modder has listed the included maps and also ensured to include a bonus for the excited fans.

This mod contains HL2VR compatible maps for Hazard Course, Uplink, and the main Black Mesa campaign (using the Vent Mod for ‘We’ve Got Hostiles!,’ the Loop Mod and On a Rail Uncut Mod for ‘On a Rail,’ the Surface Tension Uncut Mod for ‘Surface Tension,’ and the Improved Xen Mod for ‘Xen,’ ‘Gonarch’s Lair,’ ‘Interloper,’ and ‘Nihilanth’).”

The mod uses assets from the already publicly available Black Mesa Source Mod from 2012. In other words, the VR project can be played without owning the game. However, Xen 1.0 maps are also included in the mod as a bonus, but they require the retail game on Steam. As per the video description, the mod requires “Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and their respective VR counterparts in order to play.”

The notable modder has worked alongside the Source VR team to make the mod possible, but it is not associated with any official Source VR team project. Moreover, it is nearly impossible to perfectly integrate the technology of VR into the Black Mesa mod because of certain limitations. Black Mesa VR mod does not rely on the custom code used by the original game, which is also not publically available to general users.

The Black Mesa Source VR mod overhauls the Black Mesa campaign to run entirely off the code for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 VR.  This allows you to play through the entire Black Mesa campaign in VR with functional Half-Life 1 NPCs and proper scripted sequences,” says the mod description.

Furthermore, the Black Mesa mod has its fair share of issues because it uses the original assets from the publically available 2012 Black Mesa mod instead of the official fan remake to create the project. Some prominent bugs include NPCs using Half-Life 2 AI, which is less refined than the original Black Mesa AI. Only Half-Life 2 VR weapons are supported in the mod, and a couple of enemies also have bugs, glitches, and the like.

Currently, the project is in the beta stages, but it is expected to release alongside the much-awaited Half-Life 2: Episode 2 VR Mod. Black Mesa is a fan-made and Valve-approved remake by fans and is a hearty ode to the original title, and its VR mod will only prove to be an excellent addition to the Half-Life experience. The mod can be downloaded from Nexus Mods, and all the requirements and step-by-step processes are detailed concisely.

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